It was like nothing she had ever seen before: it looked like a sick ball of slime with two popping eyes with scrawny legs as feeble support. It spoke through a rounded flapping mouth from which tiny teeth could be seen, even in the darkness. It repeated its nonsense phrase over and over crawling back and forth in a frenzied effort.

Despite Eva’s demands and the noise from the monster, there came no reply. For a moment she felt helpless; she couldn’t bring herself to get up and confront the slimy terror. She was just starting to begin to wonder what to do when it choose to hop off her bed and crawl across to the door. As it made its way there, Eva was astonished to see the door swing open for the creature as if on demand. It turned back to give a sadistic little grin before it hopped through and out of sight.

For a moment, she sat in the dark wondering what the hell had just happened. It was too bizarre to be real, and yet it had just come and went. Her stomach churned at the thought of seeing the little beast squirming around again, but she remained silent knowing that her mother was pretty much useless right now. The door still remained open.

She didn’t know what possessed her to get up at that point; she had wanted to keep away from that thing just moments before. Yet she found herself compelled to leave the comfort of her bed to follow its path.

As Eva passed through her door she realized the familiar hallway of her home had miraculously changed into a cold metal stairway leading down. It didn’t make any sense; there was no way her home could change like this. Eva’s jaw hung wide open as she scraped her hand along the wall, feeling the rough rust of long forgotten iron. No, everything’s so wrong; she thought to herself, how could this possibly be happening?

With small, tentative steps Eva made her way down to the next landing, even as the light from her room receded and her mind screamed at her to run back into her room where things would make sense again. She couldn’t seem to stop herself going forward; she needed to know where that little creature went. The rusty stairs made her wish that she was wearing shoes. She didn’t even have any socks on, damn it.

She continued further down to finally reach a heavy-looking black door. It was so dark she could hardly see anything, yet her hand found the handle easily. She felt like she had no other way to go. Opening it as slowly and quietly as possible, she was astonished to find herself on a wide rooftop of a tall city building. As the bitter wind blew her hair, her mind fumbled as it tried to figure out how one could get to a rooftop by going down.

Despite her shock Eva did have a tremendous view. She could see a vast cityscape before her in the distance, and realized that the building she stood on now was a part of it. She was amazed by the change, the wind, and the starless sky above her head. She thought I must be dreaming!

Looking down, she saw that the little creature that began her journey was just a few feet away, still repeating its strange little phrase. It hopped off its legs and rolled like a ball to the edge of the roof. The chilly gusts made its slimy body ripple.

“Wuf pus meshoun inni soun foo chay!” it said to her for a final time, before hopping off the ledge.

Eva moved forward to see what she assumed to be the creature’s fall. She peered over to get the right view, cautious of the danger of being so close to the drop. She couldn’t see a thing. There were no lights, no indication of a street below. It was an empty abyss that would go on forever.

That’s when she felt something. Her surroundings were darkened by a shadow. Eva’s heart dropped as she realized there was something just behind her. She had to force herself to turn around. It was far worse than the tiny monster that had fallen.

They were three figures, each one more imposing than the last. They were tall, black, and eyes and teeth were their only distinguishing feature. It was hard to see the shape of them, but their eyes had their own kind of glow. They stared down and smiled in a way that made Eva’s stomach turn. Their presence made her only more aware of how close she was standing at the edge; a very bad place to be. She felt like she had been tricked.

“You are now entering…the demonic world…” a faint voice said to her.

The demons pushed her off the building. For how lone she fell she did not know.